Following the announcement of radiant new Oval album Romantiq, out May 12th, pioneering producer Markus Popp shares the mesmeric new video for single “Touha” by Robert Seidel. The video is the continuation of a partnership that began with an audio-visual collaboration for the grand opening German Romantic Museum in Frankfurt – a huge outdoor projection that covered the museum building. Expanding on the concept for the museum installation, Seidel’s video for “Touha” contains striking imagery of natural beauty that evokes classical images of romantic backdrops and that exists in a state of constant flux. The video captures the single’s ephemeral emotion and highlights the delicate crystalline sounds of Oval beautifully.
The music of Markus Popp is endlessly curious. Since the early 90s his pioneering albums as Oval have continually excavated new spaces in electronic music, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape. Popp’s playful and singular approach to sound has continually left critics and peers alike confounded by his ability to conjure such lithe, evocative sonics from software. Celebrated collaborations with Jan St. Werner as Microstoria remain foundational texts in underground music, while a rare split record with Liturgy exemplifies Popp’s reach and influence outside electronic spheres. With each release Oval continues to blossom into new digital spaces, combining a wide-eyed sense of wonder with astute technical prowess in his exploration of cutting-edge technologies. Romantiq turns the producer’s inquisitive ear to an omnipresent and yet oft ill-defined, even maligned area of music and art – the romantic. The album foregrounds the emotional drive that has always been present in Oval records, providing a genuine and unabashed interrogation of its subject matter delivered with delectable sophistication.
